ISO

International Standards and other publications

ISO’s main products are international standards. ISO also publishes technical reports, technical specifications, publicly available specifications, technical corrigenda, and guides.

International standards

These are designated using the format ISO[/IEC] [/ASTM] [IS] nnnnn[-p]:[yyyy] Title, where nnnnn is the number of the standard, p is an optional part number, yyyy is the year published, and Title describes the subject. IEC for International Electrotechnical Commission is included if the standard results from the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 (the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee). ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is used for standards developed in cooperation with ASTM International. yyyy and IS are not used for an incomplete or unpublished standard and may under some circumstances be left off the title of a published work.

Technical reports

These are issued when a technical committee or subcommittee has collected data of a different kind from that normally published as an International Standard, such as references and explanations. The naming conventions for these are the same as for standards, except TR prepended instead of IS in the report’s name.
For example:

Technical specifications may be produced when “the subject in question is still under development or where for any other reason there is the future but not immediate possibility of an agreement to publish an International Standard”. A publicly available specification is usually “an intermediate specification, published prior to the development of a full International Standard, or, in IEC may be a ‘dual logo’ publication published in collaboration with an external organization”. By convention, both types of specification are named in a manner similar to the organization’s technical reports.
For example:

ISO also sometimes issues “technical corrigenda” (where “corrigenda” is the plural of corrigendum). These are amendments made to existing standards due to minor technical flaws, usability improvements, or limited-applicability extensions. They are generally issued with the expectation that the affected standard will be updated or withdrawn at its next scheduled review.

ISO guides

These are meta-standards covering “matters related to international standardization”. They are named using the format “ISO[/IEC] Guide N:yyyy: Title”.
For example:

A standard published by ISO/IEC is the last stage of a long process that commonly starts with the proposal of new work within a committee. Here are some abbreviations used for marking a standard with its status:

Guide – a guidance to technical committees for the preparation of standards

International Standards are developed by ISO technical committees (TC) and subcommittees (SC) by a process with six steps:

Stage 1: Proposal stage

Stage 2: Preparatory stage

Stage 3: Committee stage

Stage 4: Enquiry stage

Stage 5: Approval stage

Stage 6: Publication stage

The TC/SC may set up working groups (WG) of experts for the preparation of a working drafts. Subcommittees may have several working groups, which can have several Sub Groups (SG).

Stages in the development process of an ISO standard

Stage code

Stage

Associated document name

Abbreviations

Description

Notes

00

Preliminary

Preliminary work item

PWI

10

Proposal

New work item proposal

NP or NWIP

NP Amd/TR/TS/IWA

20

Preparatory

Working draft or drafts

AWI

AWI Amd/TR/TS

WD

WD Amd/TR/TS

30

Committee

Committee draft or drafts

CD

CD Amd/Cor/TR/TS

PDAmd (PDAM)

PDTR

PDTS

40

Enquiry

Enquiry draft

DIS

FCD

FPDAmd

DAmd (DAM)

FPDISP

DTR

DTS

(CDV in IEC)

50

Approval

Final draft

FDIS

FDAmd (FDAM)

PRF

PRF Amd/TTA/TR/TS/Suppl

FDTR

60

Publication

International Standard

ISO

TR

TS

IWA

Amd

Cor

90

Review

95

Withdrawal

It is possible to omit certain stages, if there is a document with a certain degree of maturity at the start of a standardization project, for example a standard developed by another organization. ISO/IEC directives allow also the so-called “Fast-track procedure”. In this procedure a document is submitted directly for approval as a draft International Standard (DIS) to the ISO member bodies or as a final draft International Standard (FDIS) if the document was developed by an international standardizing body recognized by the ISO Council.

The first step—a proposal of work (New Proposal) is approved at the relevant subcommittee or technical committee (e.g., SC29 and JTC1 respectively in the case of Moving Picture Experts Group – ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11). A working group (WG) of experts is set up by the TC/SC for the preparation of a working draft. When the scope of a new work is sufficiently clarified, some of the working groups (e.g., MPEG) usually make open request for proposals—known as a “call for proposals”. The first document that is produced for example for audio and video coding standards is called a verification model (VM) (previously also called a “simulation and test model”). When a sufficient confidence in the stability of the standard under development is reached, a working draft (WD) is produced. This is in the form of a standard but is kept internal to working group for revision. When a working draft is sufficiently solid and the working group is satisfied that it has developed the best technical solution to the problem being addressed, it becomes committee draft (CD). If it is required, it is then sent to the P-members of the TC/SC (national bodies) for ballot.

The CD becomes final committee draft (FCD) if the number of positive votes is above the quorum. Successive committee drafts may be considered until consensus is reached on the technical content. When it is reached, the text is finalized for submission as a draft International Standard (DIS). The text is then submitted to national bodies for voting and comment within a period of five months. It is approved for submission as a final draft International Standard (FDIS) if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC are in favour and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. ISO will then hold a ballot with National Bodies where no technical changes are allowed (yes/no ballot), within a period of two months. It is approved as an International Standard (IS) if a two-thirds majority of the P-members of the TC/SC is in favour and not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative. After approval, only minor editorial changes are introduced into the final text. The final text is sent to the ISO Central Secretariat, which publishes it as the International Standard.

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